$51.6M to Raytheon for 19+ ATFLIR pods

Raytheon in El Segundo, CA received a $51.6 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-06-C-0310) for 19 Full Rate Production Lot 6 Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pods. These ATFLIR pods will equip the Government of Australia (18, confirmed for its new F/A-18F Bock IIs, $35.6 million; 69%) and also buys 1 ATFLIR pod and long lead time items for the Government of Switzerland (flies F/A-18C/D Hornets and may be connected to the Hornet 25 program, $5.4 million; 10.6%), plus Units Under Test and one Electro-Optical Sensory Unit for the U.S. Navy ($10.5 million; 20.4%).

Work will be performed in El Segundo, CA (60%) and McKinney, TX (40%), and is expected to be complete in November 2010. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD administers the contract.

These are ATFLIR’s first international orders beyond the USA. According to Raytheon’s release, the Swiss government’s order allows the nation to purchase up to 14 more pods in 2009, in order to equip its Hornet fleet.

Australia uses Northrop Grumman’s LITENING AT pods on its F/A-18A Hornets, but Raytheon’s ATFLIR is currently the only pod qualified with the Super Hornet. Faced with the choice of buying a different pod off the shelf, or paying the integration costs and having a common fleet resource, Australia apparently decided that buying of the shelf was the better decision.